Abstract
Many neuroscientists are motivated by the hope that their research will ultimately benefit people with neurological and mental disorders. Steven Hyman asks whether neuroscience has progressed to the point that the diagnostic manuals for mental disorders can usefully incorporate its findings. To date, the diagnosis of mental disorders has been based on clinical observation, specifically: the identification of symptoms that tend to cluster together, the timing of the symptoms' appearance, and their tendency to resolve, recur or become chronic. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International Classification of Disease, the manuals that specify these diagnoses and the criteria for making them, are currently undergoing revision. It is thus timely to ask whether neuroscience has progressed to the point that the next editions of these manuals can usefully incorporate information about brain structure and function.